June 4, 2011 was a devastating morning for buildings surrounding a vacant building at 816 Washington Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Over 100 firefighters fought a four-alarm fire that sent six to the hospital and torched neighboring businesses. Of the Prospect Heights businesses affected by the fire, two include a coffee shop and a cell phone retailer.
The Coffee Shop
Struggling to make ends meet, the young owner of the coffee shop thought she could save some money by not paying her commercial insurance bills. She discussed this option with her parents, from whom she sought advice, and they convinced her that this was a bad idea. She took their advice and paid the bills. While the damage to the coffee shop seemed minimal, the expenses to replace the windows the firefighters broke, the water damage clean up and the smoke damage and recoverycould have easily tanked this business if the owner did not have the proper insurance coverage to pay for the restoration services.
The Cell Phone Retailer
While it had the proper insurance coverage, the cell phone retail store suffered a massive amount of water damage, which poses a potential moldhazard. The building needs large-scale restoration and the owners do not know the status of their store’s structural integrity. Therefore, the owners do not know when they can open for business again. In an interview for the website Prospect Heights Patch, the shop owner stated, “It’s like you wake up one morning and you don’t have a business anymore. Devastated. That’s exactly how you feel. It’s a hardship, we have families, we have newborns to feed, and then you have to deal with this.”
What was missing for the cell phone storeowners was a business continuity plan—a plan that outlines how to keep a business going in an event such as this. Fires, water damage and natural disasters are among the top killers of small businesses when the owners do not have a plan to recoverbefore an incident occurs. While one cannot always prevent a disaster from happening, one can prevent the need to suffer through the hardships that may follow.
The Wallow Wildfire in Arizona has consumed an area half the size of the state of Rhode Island. The dry trees, low humidity and abundant winds create the perfect environment for this wildfire to thrive, which has burned for the last two weeks.
Rising temperatures and dry conditions are the perfect ingredients for summer wildfires. While they seem more common in the western parts of the U.S., a wildfire can occur in any forested area of the country. Public service announcements on TV talk about preventing forest fires, but information about what to do in the event of a wildfire is not well known. As the weather grows warmer, keep the following tips in mind regarding wildfires.
Wildfires: What to Do
Prepare your family: Create an emergency disaster kitand plan where you would go if a wildfire caused you to evacuate. Think of more than one route to get to your evacuation destination as a wildfire may cause roads to close.
Prepare your home to in advance: During the summer, keep the plants surrounding your home pruned and well watered. Healthy plants around your home can help protect it from burning; dry plants fuel a fire. Additionally, make sure your irreplaceable items are in a fireproof location (like a safety deposit box) and that you have copies of important documents and cherished photographs in a location other than your home.
Keep all combustible away from your home, including propane tanks you use for your grill.
Call the fire department: If you see a wildfire, do not assume the fire department knows about it; you may be the first person to report the event.
Follow all evacuation orders: Staying in your home will not save it from a wildfire.
Plan to recover: Even the most prepared individuals can get caught off-guard. Keep the number of a disaster restoration company in your list of emergency contacts. They can help you recover from smoke damage, restore wet books and recover damaged documents.
An accidental grease fire in the former courthouse and First National Bank in Cadiz, OH on May 6, 2011 left a historical building in ruins, four tenants homeless and a store out of business. Today, owners Tom and Vicki Cole report that they want to restore the building in spite of the fire damage.
Official suspect the eight-alarm fire started when a tenant in the building left potatoes frying on her stovetop and walked away to chat with a neighbor. Firefighters used over 100,000 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze, which caused extensive water damageto the second and third stories of the building. Additionally, a gap in the roof left by the fire allowed rain to pour in and add to the excessive moisture already in the historic building, causing mold damage.
Wanting to preserve the town’s historical connection to the old courthouse, the Coles plan to shrink-wrap the building to protect it from further water damage. Tom Cole states the shrink-wrap material is made out of a polyurethane material that professionals will stretch over the entire roof after crews place boards over the windows. After wrapping the roof, the Coles will work on clearing the burned debris and restoring the burned building even though they are not sure how they will use it, as they did not have a business continuity plan in place.
The traditional method to fight fires is with water, special foams, powders and other chemical substances. Harvard University’s Whitesides Research Group, however, have created a “wand” that harnesses the power of electric fields to control flames. This new technology could help reduce the environmental threats and water damage caused by traditional flame tamers.
How it Works
National Geographicreports the wand is a thin wire connected to a 600-watt amplifier plugged into the wall. The amplifier is about the size of a file cabinet and has the power of a high-end car stereo. The wand creates the electric field necessary—a million volts per meter—to create a spark in dry air, but the frequency is not enough to pose dangers to healthy individuals. Harvard researchers found that when they brought the wand close to 20-inch, thin flames, the flames disappeared almost instantly. Future smaller versions of the wand device will use a tenth of the wattage, be more portable and would create the same results.
The Science behind the Magic
Flames contain ions, soot and electrons that react to electric fields. Because of this, the wand uses electricity to detach the flames away from its fuel source. The science behind this recent discovery involving electricity has scientists working on a way to suppress wider fires and those that are farther away by changing the shape of the voltage, frequency and electric current in the wand. While the wand is not the answer for fighting all fires, like wildfires, there is a possibility that future versions could allow firefighters to carry power sources in a backpack that attach to a wand, or buildings and ships could have a similar feature in their ceilings.
In the Meantime
The promise of new technology does not mean individuals can ignore traditional fire-safety prevention methods. It is still the responsibility of home and business owners to take measures to ensure the safety of those in the home or office.
